http://finance.yahoo.com/news/College-for-all-Experts-say-apf-3621490094.html?x=0

 

Thought I would pull some very interesting comments out of the article but decided to let you read it and pull out what you found interesting.

Here's one:

Margaret Spellings, former federal education secretary under George W. Bush, remains a strong proponent of increased college access. She points to research showing that college graduates will on average earn $1 million more over a lifetime than those with only high school degrees.

"It is crucial to the success of our country and to us as individuals to graduate more students from college," she said at a National Press Club forum earlier this year. "We Americans greatly believe that education is the great equalizer."

Frankly I have felt for years that far too many people go to college. It really makes the college degrees even less valuable. Grad school now is the only thing that is of any value anymore. Soon that is going to be considered the standard and then only a Doctorate will have any value.

 

We need to accept the fact that not everyone is meant to go to college.

Here's one:

 

The point of the article and that is not in the quote is that it compares college graduates vs. HS diplomas and NOT college graduates and those with technical degrees.

 

The other question is do people that make billions skew the result for the college degrees.

The idea that everyone shouldn't be able to go to college or that too many people go to college sounds kind of communist to me in a way. I guess not communist, but a trait that many communist countries would accept. Should the government decide who will and who will not be educated?

The idea that everyone shouldn't be able to go to college or that too many people go to college sounds kind of communist to me in a way. I guess not communist, but a trait that many communist countries would accept. Should the government decide who will and who will not be educated?

 

:confused::confused::confused:

The world needs ditch-diggers too.

 

I went to college in two separate stints. From the first time to the last time (about a 6-year gap), I noticed a lot more people who had no business being in college. I still had a few general studies classes to take, and they were very dumbed-down from what I had earlier on.

 

In the junior-level English class I took during the second stint it was frightening to see how poorly most of my classmates wrote when we would trade essays around for peer review. The English 300 classes I took and dropped at WKU (flunked another time when I quit going to class after a blowup with a professor after the drop date -- all three times due to being too lazy to do the research paper) were much more advanced from 8-9 years earlier. I didn't even have to do a research paper, which was kind of weak.

The point of the article and that is not in the quote is that it compares college graduates vs. HS diplomas and NOT college graduates and those with technical degrees.

 

The other question is do people that make billions skew the result for the college degrees.

 

I pulled out what I thought was interesting, as per your charge in post 1.

 

I will also add that I saw a comparison recently of educational attainment lifetime earnings comparing recent graduates to those of 25 years ago. What I found to be statistically interesting is that those with only a high school diploma made, over a lifetime, 500,000 less today that those with the same education 25 years ago. This number cannot be skewed by high end earners.

I pulled out what I thought was interesting, as per your charge in post 1.

 

I agree that is interesting and I use that stat in my alternative classroom, quite often.

 

I would also like to have seen what a technical degree does in comparing earnings for HS diploma and 4-year college degree.

Surprising that no one has pulled this one out.

 

Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder blames the cultural notion of "credential inflation" for the stream of unqualified students into four-year colleges. His research has found that the number of new jobs requiring college degrees is less than number of college graduates.

 

Vedder's work also yielded something surprising: The more money states spend on higher education, the less the economy grows -- the reverse of long-held assumptions.

Plumbers. electricians and other skilled tradesmen make a lot more than a lot of collage graduates...

I agree that is interesting and I use that stat in my alternative classroom, quite often.

 

I would also like to have seen what a technical degree does in comparing earnings for HS diploma and 4-year college degree.

 

The comparison included that, too, but I can't remember the specifics. The article is on my school computer, but I'll try to find it when I go up on Sunday to do lesson plans and post it for you.

 

From what I remember is that it compared "apples to apples" for the following categories: no high school diploma, high school diploma, diploma plus associates or technical degree or two years college, bachelors degree and masters degree. The last two were the only two categories that earned more than their 25 year ago counterparts.

 

The basic premise was that, in general, if you want to live as well off as your parents, you must attain a greater educational level than they did.

The idea that everyone shouldn't be able to go to college or that too many people go to college sounds kind of communist to me in a way. I guess not communist, but a trait that many communist countries would accept. Should the government decide who will and who will not be educated?

 

 

Never said that. And if you were going by communist ideals then everyone would go to college, a true collective.

 

I never said the government should choose, I just think that it is too easy to get a degree now. In essence the greater the supply of something the less valuable it is. A high school diploma means next to nothing since we are essentially required to graduate from high school. The more people who have college degrees the less valuable they are. We are seeing that now. It used to be that a college degree guaranteed you a great job because you had one. Now you are a dime a dozen with a college degree.

The world needs ditch-diggers too.

 

I went to college in two separate stints. From the first time to the last time (about a 6-year gap), I noticed a lot more people who had no business being in college. I still had a few general studies classes to take, and they were very dumbed-down from what I had earlier on.

 

In the junior-level English class I took during the second stint it was frightening to see how poorly most of my classmates wrote when we would trade essays around for peer review. The English 300 classes I took and dropped at WKU (flunked another time when I quit going to class after a blowup with a professor after the drop date -- all three times due to being too lazy to do the research paper) were much more advanced from 8-9 years earlier. I didn't even have to do a research paper, which was kind of weak.

 

 

When I was a senior at Bellarmine I took a seminar class and after we did presentations we were to hand out anonymous response forms that our classmates were to fill out regarding how we gave our presentation. After we got them back we were supposed to write a response to the comments and turn it in to our professor.

 

When I got mine I had a comment, from a senior in college mind you, telling me to use fewer big words because not everyone understands them. The biggest word I can recall using was "systemic." I was actually quite agitated when I read that and made sure to comment that if you are a senior in college your vocabulary should be beyond that of the average individual and that there was nothing inherently wrong with how I presented things. Thankfully my professor agreed. Either way I often found myself slapping my forehead when would read the writings of some of my classmates. On top of that I had to listen to their inability to speak English properly. If you are a senior in college your grammatical skills should be beyond that of a typical fourteen year old. It is pathetic sometimes.

As a college educator, I can testify to the fact that there are many taking up space in college classrooms that have absolutely business in college. Some are just not college material and some are just there to get some grant money. I can usually tell by attendance when the last financial aid checks have been received.